Shortly after her arrival in Canada from Italy in 1948, Antonietta Petris wrote a letter to her beloved Loris Palma who at the time resided in Venice. He had actually written a letter to her just a few days previously. The following four letters are samples from their correspondence between Montreal and Venice. In 1949, Loris joined Antonietta in Montreal, the two married and lived together until Loris Palma's death in 2007.
Antonietta Petris and Loris Palma were no strangers to `love at a distance`: they had been fervidly writing to each other since August 1946, when they first met in Ampezzo Carnico, a small town nestled in the Italian Dolomites in Northeastern Italy. Once Loris left Antonietta`s native town, and returned to his home in historic Venice, their daily correspondence ensued. Until her father`s return from Canada in December 1947, Antonietta had dreamed of becoming a Venetian lady (a “Veneziana”) once she married Loris. Her father`s desire to return to Canada with Antonietta and her mother interrupted this dream, and new worldviews and new plans took over. Finally, with the promise that Loris would soon join her in Montreal, Antonietta immigrated to Montreal in September 1948. For nine months, this young couple wove their epistolary relationship in a tapestry of longing, desire and enduring patience and nostalgia.
The originals of the letters were retained by the Petris family, digital copies are used here with permission.
